“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“ Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited while imagination embraces the entire world.” Albert Einstein

The guiding ideal underpinning the research programs of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) holds that every individual is born healthy, is born wanted, and has the potential for a productive life unhampered by disease and disability. Human development is continuous throughout life, and optimal outcomes of development are a reflection, in large part, of episodes/events in early life, sometimes before birth. Optimal outcomes of development are important to the individual and to society.

NICHD recently developed a strategic plan outlining four areas of emphasis to achieve this potential. The areas of emphasis are:

• Developmental Biology—understanding the basic biology of normal and abnormal development from early development in utero through organogenesis
  
• Biobehavioral Development—research to understand the biology and developmental processes of cognition and behavior and the environmental events that modify them
  
• Genetic and Fetal Antecedents of Disease Susceptibility—the interaction of genetic, epigenetic, and cellular events, and environmental factors in the fetal and postnatal environment that contribute to health or the pathophysiology of disease
  
• Reproductive Biology—the biological and behavioral factors that allow couples to have healthy children
  

The Intramural Research Program focuses on the biological, medical, and behavioral aspects of normal and abnormal human development. Its investigative efforts span the spectrum from the study of the “physics” of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells to research on genetic regulation in model systems (fish to non-human primates), including the development and acquisition of behavioral traits from monkey to man, to studies of the natural history of human diseases and the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. In addition, the intramural research program recognizes its obligations to train biological and physician scientists who will ensure that the fundamental discoveries in developmental, reproductive, and cellular biology, along with advances in genomics and proteomics, are applied to enhance our understanding of the processes central to “health” and to the development of new therapies against disease.

“… no distinction can be drawn between basic and applied science; there is only science that has or has not yet been applied.” G. Wiessmann